Arena Profile: Joel Rubin

Joel Rubin is the Director of Policy and Government Affairs for the Ploughshares Fund. He is a former congressional aide and diplomat, having worked for two senior Democratic Senators on foreign policy, defense, and appropriations issues and at the State Department in both Near Eastern Affairs and Political-Military Affairs, winning numerous awards. A frequent commentator on foreign policy and national security affairs for CBS, Al Jazeera, the BBC, the Washington Post, the Daily Beast, and USA Today, he also blogs frequently on Huffington Post and writes a monthly political column for the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle.

Previously, Joel was the Deputy Director/Chief Operating Officer of the National Security Network and was also the founding Political and Government Affairs Director of J Street and JStreetPAC, the political home of the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement. A former Peace Corps Volunteer, Joel holds a joint Master’s degree in Public Policy and Business Administration from Carnegie Mellon University and a Bachelor’s degree in Politics from Brandeis University. Joel lives in Maryland with his wife and three children.

Joel Rubin's Recent Discussions

President Obama vindicated on Libya?

President Obama's critics are on the verge of witnessing a third major Obama success in the Arab world in 2011.

First, longtime Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak was deposed after Obama refused to support him against the Egyptian people at the moment of truth. Second, Osama bin Laden, America's archenemy #1, was killed by Navy Seals on direct orders from Obama in a risky cross-border raid into Pakistan. And now, Muammar Qadhafi - a man whose presence on the international stage has mocked any reasonable definition of sanity for more than four decades – is about to be knocked out of power by an international coalition in which Obama ensured that the U.S. played a leading team role.

House Speaker Boehner just not into President Obama?

Plus, Open Mike - July 23-34, 2011

Republican Revolution on Nuclear Weapons?

Will Republicans, during these debt-ceiling negotiations, do the unthinkable and support cutting defense spending to avoid raising taxes on the uber-wealthy? The answer is yes, as it should be, and there is an answer to their angst.

The answer is that we should dramatically reduce the nuclear weapons budget. Doing so will do no harm to our national defense.

But don't take my word for it. Take Senator Tom Coburn's (R-Okla.). His proposal this week to lop off $9 trillion from the national debt over the next decade would halve the total number of nuclear warheads in our combined active and reserve stockpiles from about 5,000 to nearly 2,500.

This would save nearly $80 billion over the next decade. Compare that to our biggest potential threat, China, who has 175 warheads, and the Coburn vision still leaves us with 14 times more warheads.

No one can reasonably argue that such an overwhelming ratio weakens our national defense.

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